By Ed Avis
At one point or another, every reprographer has a piece of used equipment that is taking up space. Tom McNew and Harry McPartland are go-to guys for buying that equipment. McNew owns Digital ES and McPartland owns Wide-Format Engines LLC, two of the best-known purchasers of used wide-format printers.
Current Demand? Warm
Both McNew and McPartland sell the used printers they acquire overseas, primarily to the Chinese. Thus, the amount they can pay reprographers for that equipment varies as Chinese demand goes up or down. At the moment that demand is moderate – it’s greater than it was at the end of 2015, but not as great as a couple of years ago.
“China is a schizophrenic marketplace,” McNew says. “The market over there is highly volatile. From last August to about January, during which time we would normally send multiple containers a month to China, we sent only two. But since January demand has picked back up. We’ve been doing this for 25 years in one form or another, and I’ve probably gone through this four or five times.”
In addition, while in the United States companies are forbidden by law from colluding on price, that situation is more fluid in China. So even when demand is generally strong, the prices don’t always reflect that.
“Although China is a great big country, a small number of individuals can get together and establish some ranges on what they feel the prices on these things should be,” McNew says.
McPartland faces the same situation, and times his sales accordingly. “I try to get my deals done before the Chinese New Year, because they decide on the pricing at that point,” he says. “It’s a constant thing. They don’t have any laws against that.”
What are They Looking For?
The type of equipment the Chinese buyers are seeking varies, too. McNew says they are currently seeking printers, such as from Xerox and KIP, that are multi-function machines with an integrated scanner. He believes that is because of space concerns – the small print shop owners in China are less interested in systems that have two “footprints,” one for the printer and one for the scanner.
McPartland says analog wide-format printers no longer interest buyers, and even older digital machines are fading. “Models will go out of vogue every once in a while,” he says. “As far as digital there’s an evolution in Océ -- the Océ 9400 has no buyers anymore, and the TDS 400 is coming into that realm. I’m always looking for Xerox 6279; most Océ 450, 600, and 700 models; and KIP 9000s.”
Neither of them are looking for inkjet printers at the moment, and both of them specialize in wide-format, not small-format. McPartland has started selling used 3D printing equipment and some small-format production printing equipment, but those are smaller segments for him.
How Does it Work?
Interested sellers can get the ball rolling on a sale with a call or email to McNew or McPartland with a brief description of their equipment.
McPartland says he asks about the meter – although most foreign buyers don’t pay much attention to that – how many rolls the printer handles, whether it has the scan-to-file feature, and certain other characteristics.
Then he checks with his buyers to get a good idea of what they will pay for the printer in question, adds in his shipping costs, and makes an offer to the shop owner.
“I make the highest reasonable offer I can to the seller,” he says. “If I get too greedy, the deal can’t happen. It’s important that all parties – including the seller and the trade in customer -- are satisfied with the value of the traded gear so their deal can happen, too.”
If his offer is accepted, he asks the seller for an invoice and gets a check out within a week or so. When the seller gets the check, McPartland arranges for shipping. He asks the owner to prepare the printer for shipping, but his designated freight carrier will do that if necessary.
McPartland does not typically service or warehouse the printers he buys, though he does warehouse some product in his California facility. Usually from the seller’s location the printer is shipped directly the buyer’s location – for example, in the case of Chinese buyers, to a warehouse at a U.S. port.
McNew’s business model is similar but with slight differences.
“The sellers just call me on the telephone and we have a conversation about the machine,” he says. “I don’t care what the meter is. I need to know what the piece of equipment is – Xerox 6204 for example – and I’m going to ask if it has an internal or external controller, one roll or two roll, if it’s complete with the all drawers and racks, and if it is operable. Based upon that, I can give you a price, and confirm that by email. Once we’ve done that, if we decide to do business, then I’ll give you a PO number, I ask you to send me an invoice, and I will send you a company check by 2nd Day UPS. So you have money in your hand and I arrange to pick that equipment up.”
Just like McPartland, McNew likes it if the equipment is prepared for shipment, but that’s not necessary. “If they have cardboard corners and shrink wrap, that’s quite helpful,” McNew says. “If it’s wrapped up so that it’s in one complete pile, that’s helpful. A lot of time the freight people carry shrink wrap with them so they can assist with that. That’s all I’m looking for – I just want to have all the parts and pieces there.”
McNew’s business model differs from McPartland’s in that he does service and warehouse the equipment he buys.
“At that point it’s logged into my shop, then goes through the validation phase,” he says. “We’ll take the machine and make sure it’s operable and has all the pieces. Then we run it through cleaning, and then it’s packaged, bubble wrapped, and shrink wrapped. Then we hold onto it until we accumulate a container load of those.”
Advice?
“The biggest tip I can give is to be very careful with who you deal with,” McNew says. “I’ve been in this business for 30 years, and I grew up in the office equipment business, and Harry did, too. We’ve got a track record and can make things happen. There are individuals who come into this business and they think they know what they’re doing, and they may tell you a price and not be able to perform on that deal. People know me well enough that if Tom McNew says something you can go to the bank with it. And the same thing with Harry.”
To contact Tom McNew, call him at 800-749-1138 or email him at mcnew@digital-es.com. To contact Harry McPartland, call him at 949-290-1549 or email him at hmcpartland@cox.net.